I am starting a trip around the world today! and my bag looks pretty full already. I am wondering were I will put new clothes/items if I decide to buy some while I am traveling.

Has anyone ever sent things back home (to the USA) in order to make room for new stuff? Which services have you used?
I checked FedEx but they charge about $700 for a 6 Kg pack from Japan. Are there any economical/best options?

4 Answers
4

Depending on the country, a box sent through the regular mail service works fine.

We had to do that when on vacation in the US, to ship back items to France since we also knew that these would not fit inside our suitcases.

UPS asked us $150. USPS did it for $40. If you ask DHL, FedEx which are in the premium range, it can be expensive.

Also, during another earlier trip, we simply bought an extra suitcase before heading home. If you expect to have "leftover" baggage allowance at your airline, this can be the solution. It costs you the price of the newly acquired piece of luggage, which can be reused later.

Anyway, take note of the restrictions of the local post system. For instance, USPS does not allow shipping batteries... thus disqualifying all tech items like cell phones, tablets, cameras.

I have been to USPS this week ant they told me that they don't do shipping by boat anymore. They do only by plane and the price is kind of expensive. I don't known what was the service you was talking about but for $40 you can probably only send some letters now.
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aberrationSep 3 '13 at 0:42

beware of regular mail... While in many countries it can be trusted, in many other countries the chances of your expensive looking souvenirs "being mislaid" in some mailman's pocket are very real. And of course chances of that fragile piece being damaged are higher than when using a quality courier service.
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jwentingMar 7 '13 at 12:25

I find that while delivering to less developed countries is often less reliable, sending from less developed countries is seldom a problem, at least as far as your goods arriving is concerned. Regular mail does indeed tend to be less careful with the goods, though.
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MastaBabaMar 8 '13 at 15:02

Another option are luggage delivery services. You can call them and they come and pick up your luggage and drop it off at your destination/home. They work by the pound. Luggage free (www.luggagefree.com) is one of the cheaper options I found. From Japan to the USA it's about $7/lbs which comes out to be about $100 for 6kg. It might be a better value than EMS only because they include insurance up to $1000 and tracking.